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Car and Driver put the Boxster and Cayman over the Corvette in their 10 Best Sports Car list and it got me to thinking. How would the C7 Grandsport fare vs the Cayman GTS in an unbiased "blind" test For instance, if you could somehow get a purely objective analysis about driving dynamics from a handful of pro race drivers on street conditions.
Having just purchased a C7 Grandsport, obviously my opinion is biased. There's a reason I bought it after all.
Some of the points that made me choose the Grandsport over the Cayman:
1) History of cheap interior on the Caymans, peeling painted plastics, etc. Also, I wanted a red leather interior, and in my personal objective opinion, the Grandsport was a step up in class and quality in the cabin from the 718 GTS. I love the bright red two-tone interior of my Grandsport (it just feels so damn happy all the time), but didn't care for the dull maroonish red interior on the 718. It just felt boring to me personally, and impersonal like the Tesla Model S interior.
2) N/A V8 vs Flat-4 turbo - that's a no-brainer. I can't imagine regularly pushing a turbo-4 and enjoying the experience. And why would anyone drive a Porsche that was neutered so as to always be second to a 911? Ugh. No thanks. I'll take a car that easily beats up the 911, on the street or track, and sounds and feels great while doing it. Why be second best? If I want forced induction, I'll slap an A&A kit in my Grandsport, and have a car that slaps around Porsches like they're priests in gen-pop.
3) Power and handling are significantly better in the Corvette. And this one isn't close. Put a 718 GTS on a track against the Grandsport with the same driver, same conditions, and we all know who wins. By a large margin. Again, why go second-class? Just so you can drive around with a Porsche badge? Pfffft.
I've been having tons of fun in my Grandsport, and enjoyed a run with a 911 owner last week. We weren't racing competitively, just having a good time (he's a friend), and we were both impressed with each other's cars at the end. He's done lots of work on his car, and it was a beast in the twisties AND the straights. I've really only done new tires, straight pipes and shift kit, so stock, I'm keeping up without much trouble but not really getting much of a lead anywhere (it went back and forth).
However, as we sat talking afterward, I mentioned that I was looking at the Cayman GTS when I bought the Grandsport. He immediately asked why I'd even consider that, and brought up the same points. His argument was to invest in a used 911, beef it up a bit, and have yourself a "real" Porsche for the same budget. Hard to argue that point. The flat-6's are reliable engines, probably the best in the biz under heavy use. Even turbo'd, they're good for tons of work.
Just my casual observations and feelings after reading the Car and Driver 10 Best Sports Car list.
Last edited by Dave_the_Dude; 12-14-2017 at 09:00 PM.
I swear those guys have to be paid off by Porsche, or so biased their perceptions are far off the mark. This happens year after year.
These "best 10's" crack me up. C7 beats the Cayman and Porsche on every possible category - joy to drive, exterior style, interior style, performance - everything except "reviewers subjective opinion".
OP sounds like curious person, you owe it to yourself to own Porsche in your lifetime, sooner the better. They're consistently rated among the best drivers cars for a reason, even if they lose a few stats here and there. It the marque I'm most familiar with, but just bought a GS for a track car.
There are numerous other links to actual documented filmed testing on various tracks by pro drivers - available in the fastestlaps.com link.
If you have any evidence of a 718 GTS beating a C7 GS on any track, I'm open to it. All the testing I've seen, the Grandsport is punishing 911 R's and even the GT3RS on a number of tracks. It's killing regular 911s. Only the race-spec 911s are keeping up.
OP sounds like curious person, you owe it to yourself to own Porsche in your lifetime, sooner the better. They're consistently rated among the best drivers cars for a reason, even if they lose a few stats here and there. It the marque I'm most familiar with, but just bought a GS for a track car.
I've owned 3 Porsches in my life: a 1979 930T with turbo swap, a 2008 Cayman S, and a 2004 996. I was unhappy with the Cayman when the paint on the interior plastic started peeling and I found out it was a common issue with other Cayman owners in the Porsche Club.
The 930T was a real hoot. Those air-cooled flat-6s sound beautiful. The previous owner had tracked the car and swapped in a new custom 72cm(?) turbo setup to reduce lag. That car felt so much better than any of the newer Porsches, just felt right to me. It was like driving an enclosed motorcycle, with the lack of A/C and radio, but what a pure driving joy. I loved the 15" rims too, those classic Cragar style wheels they used to ship with.
Anyway... if I want to build a race motor, it's cheap and simple with the LT1. You can buy and install an A&A yourself for like $6k. The guy who swapped the turbo on the 930T told me they had to pull the entire engine from below, took a month, cost ~$30k for the build and tune (to be fair, it also had custom forged internals installed, IIRC, lots of engine machine work in the receipts). I remember thinking, holy cow, please don't let this thing grenade on me. LOL.
I'll just always prefer the smooth power delivery of a naturally-aspirated V8. I love the torque, and the way it comes on linear and kicks like an ox. Oh yeah. Daddy like.
Last edited by Dave_the_Dude; 12-14-2017 at 09:45 PM.
Are you serious?? A Corvette Grandsport versus a Porsche GTS? The Porsche will win that one every time.
Originally Posted by consolidated
OP sounds like curious person, you owe it to yourself to own Porsche in your lifetime, sooner the better. They're consistently rated among the best drivers cars for a reason, even if they lose a few stats here and there. It the marque I'm most familiar with, but just bought a GS for a track car.
While you both are entitled to your opinion, so is the OP. However, I was not aware of the painted plastic interior problems on the Porsche.
I had a Boxster S and I now have a Macan S. The quality of materials and build is better than the Vette, and I never had any interior finish peeling problems. But the Vette is still nice and the performance is top notch, and they are easier and far cheaper to maintain.
Even up, I would take a 911 over a C7 as it has better quality materials and workmanship, but a C7 with 30K extra in the bank tilts it makes it a clear winner for the C7, at least for me.
I bought A GS Vette, because it would fit my golf clubs and my wife simultaneously
I would drive a Porsche any day. It is a joy to drive. If you haven't done it, go take a test drive.
That said... Like DB said, I can take my wife, or a buddy and both our golf bags, and have 90% of the driving pleasure in the C7. But If I belonged to a club that had bag storage, and all I had to do was arrive? Well, I've probably won the lotto, and I'm driving a Mclaren...
Despite somewhat similar performance numbers, a Porsche and Vette are really completely different driving experiences. Both great, but it depends on what you like.
Car and Driver put the Boxster and Cayman over the Corvette in their 10 Best Sports Car list and it got me to thinking. How would the C7 Grandsport fare vs the Cayman GTS in an unbiased "blind" test For instance, if you could somehow get a purely objective analysis about driving dynamics from a handful of pro race drivers on street conditions.
Having just purchased a C7 Grandsport, obviously my opinion is biased. There's a reason I bought it after all.
Some of the points that made me choose the Grandsport over the Cayman:
1) History of cheap interior on the Caymans, peeling painted plastics, etc. Also, I wanted a red leather interior, and in my personal objective opinion, the Grandsport was a step up in class and quality in the cabin from the 718 GTS. I love the bright red two-tone interior of my Grandsport (it just feels so damn happy all the time), but didn't care for the dull maroonish red interior on the 718. It just felt boring to me personally, and impersonal like the Tesla Model S interior.
I think the issue stopped after the 987.2, mine has signs of this. The 981 changed the interior completely and did away with the painted parts.
2) N/A V8 vs Flat-4 turbo - that's a no-brainer. I can't imagine regularly pushing a turbo-4 and enjoying the experience. And why would anyone drive a Porsche that was neutered so as to always be second to a 911? Ugh. No thanks. I'll take a car that easily beats up the 911, on the street or track, and sounds and feels great while doing it. Why be second best? If I want forced induction, I'll slap an A&A kit in my Grandsport, and have a car that slaps around Porsches like they're priests in gen-pop.
3) Power and handling are significantly better in the Corvette. And this one isn't close. Put a 718 GTS on a track against the Grandsport with the same driver, same conditions, and we all know who wins. By a large margin. Again, why go second-class? Just so you can drive around with a Porsche badge? Pfffft.
I've been having tons of fun in my Grandsport, and enjoyed a run with a 911 owner last week. We weren't racing competitively, just having a good time (he's a friend), and we were both impressed with each other's cars at the end. He's done lots of work on his car, and it was a beast in the twisties AND the straights. I've really only done new tires, straight pipes and shift kit, so stock, I'm keeping up without much trouble but not really getting much of a lead anywhere (it went back and forth).
However, as we sat talking afterward, I mentioned that I was looking at the Cayman GTS when I bought the Grandsport. He immediately asked why I'd even consider that, and brought up the same points. His argument was to invest in a used 911, beef it up a bit, and have yourself a "real" Porsche for the same budget. Hard to argue that point. The flat-6's are reliable engines, probably the best in the biz under heavy use. Even turbo'd, they're good for tons of work.
Just my casual observations and feelings after reading the Car and Driver 10 Best Sports Car list.
There are numerous other links to actual documented filmed testing on various tracks by pro drivers - available in the fastestlaps.com link.
If you have any evidence of a 718 GTS beating a C7 GS on any track, I'm open to it. All the testing I've seen, the Grandsport is punishing 911 R's and even the GT3RS on a number of tracks. It's killing regular 911s. Only the race-spec 911s are keeping up.
Again, open to any real evidence of the contrary.
I was looking at the Car and Driver article and I'm pretty sure that they claimed faster acceleration numbers for the Porsche, so if your track is straight then you might want the car from Stuttgart. This seems to be a theme that has been ongoing since the C6 where a Z06 being tested against all kinds of exotic cars would put up the slowest acceleration numbers but scorch most of the competition on the track. To me, that says a lot about GM's chassis engineers.
There have been numerous comparisons by professional race car drivers, documented by major media outlets and magazines, and the Grandsport has not yet lost to any 911 outside of the GT3RS and GT2RS.
Here is video of Randy Probst putting up better track numbers in a Grandsport than any 911 he's tested:
Show me actual video of a Grandsport getting beat up by any non-race-spec 911 anywhere. You won't find it.
Further, someone said the interior on the Porsche is higher quality than the Grandsport, and I don't know how you say that. I just drove the 718 GTS a few weeks ago, right before buying my Grandsport. In what objective way do you call it superior? It is filled with cheap hard plastic and was buzzing and rattling during my test drive. The salesman laughed and said, "Hey, it's a Cayman".
I think the pro-Porsche stuff is just homerism and sentimentalism. There is no objective basis that favors the Porsche, either the 911 or the Cayman GTS.
Last edited by Dave_the_Dude; 12-15-2017 at 06:53 PM.
I was looking at the Car and Driver article and I'm pretty sure that they claimed faster acceleration numbers for the Porsche, so if your track is straight then you might want the car from Stuttgart. This seems to be a theme that has been ongoing since the C6 where a Z06 being tested against all kinds of exotic cars would put up the slowest acceleration numbers but scorch most of the competition on the track. To me, that says a lot about GM's chassis engineers.
Tesla Model S has faster acceleration than any gasoline-powered internal combustion engine on the market. It's not a faster car than any real sports car though.
Despite somewhat similar performance numbers, a Porsche and Vette are really completely different driving experiences. Both great, but it depends on what you like.
Exactly. They are two different answers to two different questions and both are brilliant in their own way. The layout of the Cayman makes it more of a toy for me though, where you can use a C7 as a daily driver without a lot of trouble.
12-14-2017, 08:56 PM
2018 Grand Sport vs 2018 Porsche Cayman GTS
